January 27
Genesis 28: A Stairway to Heaven That She Doesn't Have to Buy
Genesis 28; Matthew 27; Esther 4; Acts 27
By Genesis 28, Jacob has cheated his brother out of his blessing; his mother is worried that Jacob would marry one of the “loathsome” Hittite women; and Jacob is anxious about his older brother Esau beating him up - or worse.
Yet Isaac is still the caring father, trying to make sure his youngest son turns out OK. So he tells him to go to his uncle Laban to find a good wife, God might bless and prosper Jacob and fulfill the promise He gave his grandfather Abraham (28:1-5). These are very human, very faulty, very like-us people.
Jacob easily agrees to get away from his angry brother, heed the advice of his mother, and seek a wife among his second cousins. Along the way God meets him in a dream. In it God communicates three things:
First, He displays to him a ladder, with angels going up and down on it. The ladder sits on the earth and extends all the way to heaven (12).
Secondly, the LORD - the Hebrew can read either “standing on the ladder” or “standing beside him” - reiterates His promise to Abraham, that he will multiply Jacob’s offspring in every direction, such that they will cover the earth. And as God promised to Abraham so He promises to Jacob:
…in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (14)
Then thirdly, because Jacob is a young man in a precarious moment of life, God adds to the promise something similar to what He will promise Joshua centuries later - that He will never leave Jacob but will be with him wherever he goes, to do him good (15).
Jacob responds in three ways:
First, he is afraid, for the God Who is actually there is more fearful and awe-full than He realized. Secondly, he is encouraged, literally - he has new courage. God’s steadfast love does that to a man. And thirdly, he resolves to walk in this God’s ways.
He names the place “Bethel” - the house of God (19).
The vision of the ladder seems to simply but strangely communicate in graphic form, like a pre-literacy sign, “This is God. This is what I will do. This is your offspring.” And God would fulfill what He promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He would provide that Ladder, that House of God for man to ascend back to heaven - in His Son Jesus:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51
Who can climb this ladder? The faulty, the anxious, the insecure, like Jacob, like you and me. Only by faith.